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\ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN; 



A DISCOURSE, 



Delivered at Chicago, December 4th, 1859, 



IN THE 



FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 



BY REV. AV. A\^. R^TTON. 



CHICAGO: 

OHURCH, GOODMAN k GUSHING, NEWSPAPER, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 

51 and C3 X>a Salle Street. 



THE EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN. 



JoAn 12: 25. — "Verily, verily I aay unto you, 
except a oorn of wheat fall into the ground and die, 
it abideth ulone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth 
much fruit." 

By tlie use of a .striking analogy, Jesiis 
draws attention to tlie fact, tliat a man's 
death may be productive of the most be- 
neficial results to the cau.se with which he 
is identified — nay, not only so, but that 
the power of a man's death may reduce 
his previous life to a mere cypher. A 
grain of wheat, " abiding alone," though 
for never so many years, of what value is 
it? There is no coin small enough to 
buy it. It is too dimin\Uive to avail for 
food. No storage in the pp-anary will in- 
crease the bulk. In its j)resont form it is 
in fact ))erfeCtly useless. ]5ut lot it come 
under sentence of death, to be cast forth 
as a vile nnd des]>icable thing; at the 
proper season, make a grave for it in the 
earth, and hide it out of sight inthr damp 
ground ; there let it lie neglected, till it 
bursts asunder and is seemingly destroy- 
ed ; and what have you done? Reduced 
it to nothing, or to the nu-re dust of de- 
cay ? Nay, verily. You have made it a 
thing of power. You have multiplied it 
fifty fold. From its bursting heart issues 
a tender shoot that seeks the air and sim, 
and that crowns itself at last with the 
beaj-ded head that teems with grain. And 



were that head of wheat dealt with in like 
manner, the process would need to be re- 
peated but a few tiiiu's, to spread before 
the gladdened eye a glorious harvest field, 
from which the toiling f:irnier would draw 
his wealth and hungeritig thousands their 
bread. 

And so Christ would have us under- 
stand, that ft man who dies for the truth, 
who yields himself as a sacrifice for a 
righteous cause, is so far from perishing 
thereby out of all influence, that he actu- 
ally multiplies his power a thousand fold ; 
that, paradoxical ;is the assertion may be, 
he then only begins to live. He offered 
himself a-s the chief illustration of the 
tnith ; for he prefaced the declaration 
with the words, " The liour is come that 
the Son of man should be glorified." And 
lest any of his disciples should mistak« 
his m<'aning, nor once associate the idea 
of "glorv" with an ignominious executiom 
as a malefactor, he added the text to show 
how death might ojicrate to .set upon a 
man the seal of honor and power. It is 
quite needless, when eighteen centuries 
have accumulated the evidence, for me to 
point out the verification of Christ's pre- 
dictive remark concerning himself If 
proof were desired, it would be sufticient 
to take the word cross, once the synonpTi 



of shame and now that of glory, once the 
representative of weakness even unto 
death, but now the symbol of power and 
of endless life ; and the change owing 
isimply to the fact that on the cross the 
murdered Jesus breathed his last breath ! 
Satan was fool enough to suppose that a 
grain of wheat perished when it was 
planted ! He thought he had secured the 
world's ruin when he had ci'ucified its Re- 
deemer, and behold he had unwittingly 
accomplished its salvation ! 

But let it not be imagined that Christ 
meant to restrict the application of the 
text to himself, because he was the high- 
est illustration of the truth which it ex- 
pressed, or because his death sustained a 
peculiar relation to the world. Not only 
is the language general antl as it were 
proverbial, but in the following verse he 
expressly leads each reader to make a 
personal application of it, that we too may 
exercise its sublime faith and prepare, if 
Providence require, for the necessary sa- 
criiice ; saying, " He that loveth his life 
shall lose it ; and he that hateth his life in 
this world, shall keep it unto life eternal." 
No man can tell in what circumstances he 
may be placed in relation to the cause of 
truth, or when he may be called to choose 
between death and cowardice ; between 
the sacrifice of his own life and treason 
to God and humanity. As in every such 
case, a false expediency Avould fain per- 
suade us that it were folly and insanity to 
court death and thus to lose forever all 
opportunity to pi'omote the cause we love, 
Christ hastens to reassure our moral cour- 
age and sound judgment, by declaring 
that death in such circumstances is the 
highest testimony we can bear to the 
tnith, and that the grave when it closes 
over our lifeless remains, shall be but as 
the furrow when it has embosomed the 
seed. 

Under the Old Dispensation, when prin- 
ciples clothed themselves in rude forms, 
and God suffered men to be tauarht divine 



truths by harsh methods, such as were 
then necessary from the world's lack of 
mental and moral culture, Samson was 
the striking exemplification of this idea. 
He was a rough, uncouth, physical type of 
the grand thought that death may crown 
the deeds of life with a still vaster result. 
He was God's scourge of the Philistines, 
and under his stalwart arm many an un- 
circumcised oppressor of God's people bit 
the dust. But at last, and by his own 
folly too, they had him in prison ; they 
put out his eyes ; they bound his feet with 
fetters of brass, and his power seemed to 
have departed forever. " The lords of 
the Philistines gathered them together for 
to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their 
god and to rejoice ; for they said, ' Our 
god hath delivered Samson our enemy 
into our hand.' And when the people 
saw him, they praised their god ; for they 
said, ' Our god hath delivered into our 
hands our enemy and the destroyer of our 
country, who slew many of us.' " The 
grand temple of Dagqp was filled with 
three thousand men and women assembled 
to exult over Samson, when with a prayer 
to God for aid, the cajitive hero seized 
the main colunms which supported the 
building and bowed forward "with all his 
might. The support gave way, the mas- 
sive edifice fell with a crash upon the 
mocking oppressors, and the inspired pen- 
man records this significant sentence : — 
" So the dead which he slew at his death 
were more than they which he slew in his 
life." Madman! fanatic! suicide! shout 
the pale conservatives, as they contem- 
plate the scene ; but the autlior of the 
epistle to the Hebrews places the name of 
Samson on the list of the worthies who 
•' obtained a good report through faith,^'' 
and, ^'■\fho, through faith subdued king- 
doms, wrought righteousness, obtained 
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the 
edge of the sword, out of weakness were 
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turn- 



ed to tiigliL till- anuicM of the alifiib." — 
That was the most imprcHBivt' mode of 
inHtruotion in that barbaric ai^i', ami por- 
haps it woro not too iniu-h to say, that 
even now, when men by their vices, 
cherish the barbaric spirit, and when na- 
tions in tlieir crimes show that the mild in- 
fluence of Christianity has not civilized 
them, God will insert in their history acha))- 
ter out of the Old Tef^tament, ami will 
raise up a Samson tojbe their instructor in 
morals. 

When a tew more centuries had rolled 
by, the illustrations of the truth which we 
are considering assumed the forju of mar- 
tyrdoms. Pro])het8 were slain by incens- 
ed kinjTS for their faithful ])olitical j)reach- 
ing, and bequeathed their nu-mories and 
princij)les as a rich legacy to the nation 
and the world. Then, as introductorj- 
to the Savior, came John the IJa])tist, with 
his brief but powerful ministry, which 
(by consulting worldly prudence and pre- 
serving the favor of Herod, which was at 
first accorded to Inm) he might have pro- 
longed, at least in its outward form to old 
age. But he was a ripe seed to be best 
used by being j)lanted ; and so, with full 
faith in the doctrine of the text, he ])er- 
sisted in "ruining his influence" by re- 
buking the crimes of the king, and met a 
violent death, and God immortalized his 
example by giving it a place in the Uible, 
where it lias been a jjower in moulding 
the characters of millions for eighteen 
centuries. Next canu' the illustrious vic- 
tory of the cross, in which Christ veritie«l 
his own declaration that death sows the 
seed of a jueasureless harvest, and then 
follows the long procession of Christian 
martyrs, from Stephen to om* own times, 
the result of whose suflerings and deaths 
has been so uniform as to give rise to the 
familiar proverb, '' The blood of the mar- 
tyrs is the seed of the church." And the 
principle has held true even beyond its 
strictly religious illustrations, histor)- teach- 



ing us that the victims who perish in thr* 
first stages of resistanoe to any form of 
wrong and outrage in the world, do not 
die in vain, nor is their intiuence diminish- 
ed but rather increased by their heroic 
sacrifice. The sword and the axe have 
often proved to be the jdoughshares that 
turned the furrow in which the madness 
of oppressors unwittingly planted^the seed 
of subsequent revolutions, which under 
the sunshine of a favoring Providence, 
ripened into human deliverance. 

And now let us inquire by what meth- 
ods death becomes even more fruitful than 
life. l*rincipally by two: 

1. It com])els attention to the grand 
])oint at issue. Death is too solemn ar 
event to jiass without notice, even in il^ 
ordinary private occurrence. ' Hut wh«r: 
it comes publicly, by order of the rulers, 
or in the violent rage of the people, it ar- 
rests universal attention. The inquiry i^ 
heard from every lij), Why is this? What 
has the man doneV How did he forfeit 
his life ? Then ensue statement jind 
counter statement, accusation and defence, 
argtunent and appeal. At first those 
who sufler for the truth will be over- 
whelmed with obloquy; »br tlu-y belong to 
the aj)pareutly insignificant niinority, 
against wh»^m is an almost universal out- 
cry, i Jut, under (iod's blessing, Iruth wiU 
gradually clear itseH' from the nii.sts of 
prejudice and passion. That men should 
be found willing to die for their principles, 
argues . t leas> honesty and heroism on 
their part, and an electrifying power in 
their peculiar belief The object for which 
they shed their blood must seem to them 
to be noble and unspeakably important; 
may it not really be that they are contend- 
ing for a sublime truth, or exposing a 
deadly error, or resisting an insufferable 
outrage? Such suspicions, leading to 
investigation, soon ripen into convic- 
tion in intelligent and thoughtful minds, 
and sjiread thence to others under their 



6 



influence, till a general change of opinion 
is secured. Thus the mere fact of mar- 
tyrdom occasions inquiry and discussion 
such as no amoimt of ordinary conversa- 
tion or preaching would secure. 

2. But perhaps a still more potent influ- 
ence is, the direct contagion of the spirit 
and example of the martyrs. The heart 
naturally responds to deeds of heroism. 
We adnjire bravery even in a bad cause ; 
we are touched with syra})athy and re- 
spect for fortitude even where it is sus- 
tained by fanaticism. Hence all experi- 
ence proves, that there is no surer way to 
propagate errror and delusion than to per- 
Becute its advocates. These may gain 
through sympathy for their suflerings what 
they would foil to secure by their ar- 
guments. If then, men die for the truth ; 
if in their last moments they give utter- 
ance to sentiments which, piercing through 
the outward armor of law and custom, 
appeal directly to the conscience ; if they 
manifest a spirit of faith in God and love 
to man, and show that they act from no 
selfish considerations, but from high mor- 
al principle; if their dying declara- 
tions elicit a response from the noblest 
instincts of the human breast; there 
will be a contagion in their character 
and deeds which no power on earth 
or in hell can nullify. Their very looks 
and tones will beget conviction among 
the spectators ; their lofty bearing and 
spirit of self-sacrifice will pass, as by 
inspiration, into the noble natures ainon^ 
those who witness their death; their last 
utterances will be caught up with reverent 
devotion, carried as on the Aviiigs of the 
wind to the most distant places, and 
adopted as the Avatch-words of future 
generations; and their graves will be as the 
altars of religion, to which men will come 
to put themselves and their children under 
oaths of eternal hatred to falsehood and 
crime. This, it is well known, was the ef- 
fect of the heathen persecutions directed 



against the early Christians. Such was 
the faith, purity, meekness and fortitude 
of the sufferers, that converts multiplied 
at every martyrdom, and ere long, death 
so lost its accustomed terror, and the scaf- 
fold and stake become so ennobled by the 
precious blood which had stained them, 
that new disciples avowed themselves 
amid the multitude in the very courts and 
at the place of execution, and vied with 
each other in claiming the martyr's fate 
and crown. Thus was death more fruit- 
ful than life. 

I need not dwell longer upon the gen- / 
eral principle announced in our text. You 
have already anticipated the application 
which the events of the past week would 
suggest, and to which I Avould now direct 
attention, only premising, that such are the 
relations of the question which they raise, 
that it becomes us both as citizens and as 
christians to consider carefully the posi- 
tions which we may assume. 

On Friday, the second of December, in 
this the year of our Lord, eighteen hund- 
red and fifty-nine, at Charlestown, in the 
State of Virginia, John Brown was pub- 
licly executed on the gallows, by the au- 
thorities of that State. No execution has 
ever excited so much interest in this 
country, or given rise to such conflicting 
opinions. There is no dispute as to what 
John Brown actually did ; there is a wide 
difl*erence of judgment as to the moral 
character of his conduct. That we may 
i-each a calm and considerate conclusion, 
let us notice separately the man and his 
deeds ; and the latter first. 

John Brown was executed for alleged 
treason against the State of Virginia, for 
endeavoring to excite an insurrection 
among the slaves, and for murder. As the 
charge of murder was not based on any- 
thing that usually bears that name, but on 
acts more nearly parallel to deaths caused 
in war, and as the killing was incidental 
to the prosecution of his other plans and 



occurred while defending himself tluMLiii, stnal. made 'rtundry prij^oiiers, wa« Hur- 
we need not dwell upon it sepiuatt-ly. — | roundt'd^l'V troops, defendu<l hijiiKclf by 
The charge of ti'cason would seom m-cessji- 1 forcr of anas, orcaNioniuf^ st'Veral (.k'uth.s 
rilytoapply onlytoacitizenofthoStatewho Ion both sides, including that of two of his 
had gout^ht to overthrow the t^overnnieut, own sons and was tinally wounded, over- 
and as John Brown never was a citizen of powered by iiuinbirs, sci/Ati, imprisoned, 
Virginia nor even a resident, a.s he denied I tried with a haste and prejudice which 
any intention of overthrowing the gov- |niocke<l alike the spirit and the form of 
eminent, and as no proof of the fact was [justice, convicted, sentenced aiul executed, 
adduced on the trial, we may dismiss that jWhat opinion shall we express as Chris- 
charge also. 



tians, upon this mattery What shall / 



The real ground of ott'ence, which has say as a minister of the Lord Jesus? 



excited the anger of the South, wiiile it 
has elicited the sympathy of the North, has 
been his attempt to secure freedom for the 



That we should have sympathy with 
John 15rown in the general object of se- 
curing freedom to the slaves, follows not 



slaves. Doubt has existed as to the pre- j „u.relv from our cliristiajiitv but from our 



CISC natuj-e of his i)lans in this respect ; 
whether he simply intended to eflect a 
forcible rescue of a certain number, car- 



very manhood. He hassunk below the level 
of our common humanity whose heart does 
not respond to the appeal of the slave as 



rying oft* to Canada an armc<l body of against his master and the laws by which 
fugitives from Virginia, as he did a yeai- |i,i„ piaster holds him in bondage. It 
since from Missouri, which is his own dy- ,u'eds no revelation to assure us, that as 
ing and most credible explanation of his [tiipre js an eternal distinction between a 

person and a thittg^ so the chattel princi- 
ple, which affirms human beings to be 
property, is only and always a lie. But 
it does not folh)W from this, that all means 
may be used indiscriminately for the over- 
throw of the system which recognizes and 
enforces this lie, or for the rescue of in- 
dividual suft'erers. The apostle hath 
warned us against the nUe, " Let us do 
evil that good may come," as a damnable 
heresy. Let me therciore carefully state 
what I suppose to be the truth on this 
point according to sound reason and the 
word of (lod. 

The Bible, aside from its code of laws 
for the Jews, umler the old dispensation, 
does not legislate directly for civil com- 
munities as such. It simply indicates 
those general principles of justice and hu- 
manity which they are bound to recognize 
imder pain of divine displeasure. There- 
fore it does not inculcate political truth 
as regards the best form of government, 
nor instruct communities a'' to the right, 



designs; or whether he hojjcd to excite 
uism-rection, with vague hopes that trom 
a local rebellion it might spread thrcnigh 
all the slave States and, perhaps, without 
overthrowing the government, extort an 
act of emancipation. 

Let the following extract from his speech 
in court speak tor itself: 

'* I have, may it please the C<»urt, a few 
words to say. In the tirst place, I deny 
everything but what I have all along ad- 
mitted, the design on my i)art to free the 
slaves. I intended certainly to have made 
a clean thing of that matter,. as I did last 
winter when I went into Missouri, and 
there took the slaves without the snapping 
of a gun on either side, moving tnem 
through the country, and tinally left them 
in Canada. I designed to have done the 
same thing again on a larger scale. That 
was all I intCMided. I never did intend to 
commit murder, nor treason, nor to excite 
or incite the slaves to rebellion and to 
make an insurrection." 

At all events, he made an armed noc- 
Uimal attack upon the place kown as Har- 
per's Ferry, seized the United States ar- 



duty and time of a revolution, where gov- 
ernment has "become a mere tyranny and 
defaats its divinely appointed end. It ad- 
dresses individual men in tlieiv personal 
relations to government, and enjoins obe- 
dience to all righteous law, and patient 
submission to unjust enactments, until 
such time as deliverance may come; which 
may be by a peaceable change of rulers or 
by a successful revolution on the part of 
the people as a body. No sanction is giv- 
en to mere individual outbreaks, whether 
from revenge, despair, or a desire of re- 
dress ; because such outbreaks, encourage 
evil passions, lead to rash enterprises, bring 
ruin on all concerned with them, cover 
religion with the reproach of being an ex- 
citer of sedition and an enemy of good 
order, and produce in every Avay more 
evil than they remedy. 

Now apply these principles to the sub- 
ject of slavery and the way of duty is 
made plain. As has been often said, sla- 
very is nothing more nor less than a state 
of war perpetuated between masters and 
slaves. It originate(i in war, Avhen the 
prisoners taken in battle or the captives 
seized in conquered cities were reduced to 
slavery. The African slave trade has always 
been sui>])lie(l with victims by incessant 
wars between the tribes; the prisoners being 
regularly enslaved and then retained in 
the country or sold to the traders. Slave- 
ry is thus perpetuated captivity, as when a 
few years since, the Algermes reduced 
their white captives to slavery. The 
slaves have therefore a perfect right 
to do what other captives have a right 
to do; what any oppressed nation has a 
right to do. They may resort, in a body, 
to revolution, if peaceable measures are in 
vain, and if they have any reasonable 
prospect of success ; that is, provided they 
can act unitedly with sufficient intelligence 
and courage, and with adequate resources 
of attack, defence and subsistence. This 
will not be denied by any who defend the 



course of our own fathers, or who be- 
lieve in the right of revolution on the pcyrt 
of communities. If they were to do this, 
I see not but that it would be as proper 
for others to go to theii- aid, as it was for 
Lafayette to come from France to assist our 
struggling fathers. Yea, more may be true. 
If it were previously certain that they had 
sufficient resources and were prepared to 
rise and successfully take and defend their 
rights, provided a leader could be secured 
from abroad, or a small body of effective 
auxiliaries could aid them at the first and 
most perilous moment, it would be difficult 
to prove wrong upon those who should 
supply this single deficiency. Indeed if 



it was right for the civiHzed world to 
mterfere by force of ^i-ms to put an end to 
the oppression practiced in the Barbary 
States, or if French intervention would 
be right in the Papal States, it would not 
be easy to show that there would be Avrong 
in the forcible release of the slaves in the 
United States by civihzed nations that 
should have the power. But where no 
such prospect of success exists, mere in- 
dividual enterprises, or small combinations 
for violent resistance, are inexpedient and 
wrong, being condemned by sound reason 
and by the explicit teaching of the Scrip- 
tures. Those Avho in such case " take the 
sword " must, as our Lord warned Peter 
in similar circumstances, expect to "per- 
ish by the sword. " 

If the slave cannot effect a quiet and 
peaceable escape, as Paul, with the assist- 
ance of the disciples, did from Damascus, 
he must subniit ])atiently to the wrong, 
must be mdustrious, honest and meek, 
must endeavor to conciliate the favor and 
promote the good of the master, and must 
thus recoinmend the religion of Jesus and 
lighten as far as possible the burdens of 
himself and fellows. This was the uni- 
form advice and coramaird of the apostles, 
opposed though they were to slavery. — 
See Ep. 6 : 5-8, Colos. 3 : 22-25. 1 . Tim. 



_^ 



9 



6 : 1-5, 1. Pet. 2 : 1 8-20. And thoflo from 
without who Kvmpathizo with the shive, 
lUUHt be tjovenied hy the «:ime prineiple, 
abstaining from violence, and resorting to 
moral aiul veliixious means; ))rayer, |>reneh- 
ing, ])rinting ami the ballot box. The 
spirit of benevolence to all concerned re- 
quires this course. 

Judged by these oltviuus rulrs, ilie ex- 
l)edition of John Hmwri into the Slate of 
Virginia cannot be jrstitietl, whether it 
were for insurrection, or for the forcible 
abduction of slaves. Not that slavery is 
right, or slave law at all valid, or a slave- 
holding government, so far fort/i, any- 
thing more than organized ]»iracy; but 
only that the tendency of such enterprises 
is to beget universal bitterness of feeling, 
to add to the suflerings of the slaves, to 
create new obstacles in the way of those 
who are seeking their [toaceful emancipa- 
tion, to cause the useless deatli of many 
individuals and to end in disastrous fail- 
ure. 

The slaves of our land, however nnicli 
more oj^pressed than our fathers, have not 
their means of successful revolution, nor 
even those which were enjoyed by their 
own kindred in St. Domingo. They are 
vastly outnumbered by the white ])0]»ula- 
tion,arewithoutarms, are uniliseiplined, ig- 
norant, without nnitual understanding, des- 
titute of money or resources of any kind, 
and unfit, therefore, for revolutionary en- 
terprises, except to co-operate with a 
powerful invading .inny. Indeed the best 
indication of good sense which they have 
ever given, was in their refusing to unite 
in John Brown's rash undertaking. It 
were well if their prudence could be im- 
itated by those who sympathize with them. 
Gordlan knots are not always to be cut 
by the sword. No one has a right to sac- 
rifice hiniseli' ov others in mad enter- 
prises. 

And then it must be remembered, that 
though thus powerless for good, an insur- 



rection of tho slaves would be mighty for 
evil. They eould not indeed conquer the 
whites in war, but nmst ultinnitely, with 
out powerful help from abroa<l, be slaugh- 
tered by thousands, and they would be 
umible U) establish and maintain a gov- 
ernment of their own; but then they 
could at first rob and burn, destroy and 
nuu-der; they cotild easily let loose the 
passions of hell, ajid like s(. many black 
fiends outrage and ma.ssacre helpless wo- 
men and children; they could desolate the 
face of the country; they could maintain 
a long, desultory strife from out of for- 
(isis and swamps and moimtains ; and Uius 
they could bring ruin upon the South, and 
commit atrocities at the very thought of 
which om- l>lood runs cold. And can we 
take any delight in such a prospect ?4- 
Does it offer any hope to humanity, and 
promise a blessing t<) the worhl superior 
to that whieh could be secured by peace- 
ful and religious means? Were it not 
infinitely better to secure national repent- 
ance, and the consent cU" all sections and 
classes to emancipation? I cannot sympa- 
thize, then, with any jiroject which looks 
to a servih' insurrection. It would not 
benefit the slave, and it would be a hell on 
earth to the whites. Jt is not the way of 
Christiajiity, but of blind passion and dia- 
bolical revenge. 

John Brown's expedition, therefore, if 
it wa.s tainted witl. such a design, (which 
he denies and I think tnithfully,) or if it 
legitimately tended in that direction, is 
only lo be condemned. We have not yet 
exhausted peaceful measures; indeed, (I 
say it to our shame,) we have scareelv h<i- 
gun to use them. No door was open, 
promising to a sober judgment success in 
revolutionary att<inpts; for the requisite 
resources were not available from within 
or from without. The direct result ha^ 
been death to John Brown and to not a 
few others, both among his associates and 
his opponents, and the stirring of fiery 



10 



passion in all sections of the land, tlie pos- 
sible prelude to a, terrible fratricidal con- 
flict, while not a slave has been set at lib- 
erty. 

So mucii tor the enterprise, and now for 
the man/ Men must notahvays be judged 
by their enterprises ; because these latter 
may be either better or worse than their 
authors. Bad men may engage in noble 
achievements, and good men may become 
so deluded as to embark in rash, foolish 
and even wicked undertakings ; especially 
when they are moved by deep sympathy 
with human suftering, or by strong indig- 
nation at heinous crime. There is such 
a thing as hallucination in enthusiastic 
minds which dwell exclusively upon a 
single exciting topic. While we condemn 
therefore as a matter of judgment, the ex- 
pedition in which John Brown came to his 
end, we may still find reason not only to 
sympathize with his desii-e to overthrow 
slavery, but also to acquit the man of evil 
intent and even to admire him as in spirit 
one of the few heroes of history. There 
are many things to be taken into account in 
estimating the part which John Brown 
took in this sad matter. 

First of all, we are to remember his na- 
tive character. Enough has already come 
to light to show that from a boy, John 
BroAvn was marked by a peculiar nobility 
of character. The sternest integrity, the 
highest sense of justice and honor, the 
most tender and womanly compassion, and 
yet the coolest daring and the most un- 
flinching fortitude — these were his well 
known qualities. And they not only fitted 
him for perilous enterprises, but naturally 
suggested them in the cause of humanity. 
A certain class of errors imply nobility of 
character. A mean, selfish man would 
never have embarked in such an mider- 
taking. It was the impulsive, generous- 
hearted Peter that drew his sword and 
cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. 
And if he had cut oflf his head, would the 



act have been murder ? Yet religious edi- 
tors hav e called John Bro>\'n a murderer ! 

Next we must call to mind what Amer- 
ican slavery is, in all its vileness and in 
all its audacity, and what must have been 
the feelings of such a man as John Brown, 
when he had meditated iipon its outrages 
for years, had seen its power increasing, 
had long identified himself with the near- 
ly four millions of its victims, and in view 
of the apathy of the church and the greed 
of the slaveholders, had come to despair 
of its peaceful tei*mination. Said Edmxmd 
Burke, in one of his noted speeches, when 
apologizing for any undue warmth of ex- 
pression, " Something must be pardoned 
to the spirit of liberty." We can aflTord 
to be lenient towards extreme action 
against American slavery, when we re- 
member that John Wesley pronounced it 
to be " the vilest beneath the sun," and 
when we think how at times its atrocities 
have made our own blood boil in our veins, 
and it seemed as though we must arm at 
once and rush to the relief of the op- 
pressed. 

And to this again we must add the 
peculiar experience and training which 
John Brown had in Kansas, and for which 
he was indebted to the slaveholding States 
and the Federal Government. It was in 
Kansas that he learned to use anns against 
slavery, and those arms were taken up in 
defence of the friends of freedom against 
the lawless and unprovoked violence of 
the slaveholders who invaded the territo- 
ry from the neighboring State of Missou- 
ri in armed bands, seized upon the ballot 
boxes, imposed a fraudulent legislature 
and a tyrannical code of laws, and deter- 
mined to force slavery upon that fair do- 
main contrary to the wiU of the people. 
When driven to resistance by the robber- 
ies, arsons and murders of the slavehold- 
ers, his own son having been cruelly slain 
by them, and when under his lead the war 
had been successfully tunied against those 



11 



who ooniraenced it, is it singular Uiat John > ijuineaiiiU-ly hcikc the United States ar»e 



Brown ehould have judged that as the 
shiveholders had appeak-d to anus, he 
might justly try them licreatler at their 
chosen tribunal antl press thi'in with tlu-ir 
own weapons ? If his attention was turn- 
ed in the wrong direction, in the choice of 
means wherewith to combat slavery, who 
were his teachers and who is resi)onsible 
for hi8 progress in the school of arms? 
Nor must we forget, in this connection, 
the stimulus that such a conception wouhl 
receive from the numerous " filibuster ex- 
peditions and slave-trade ventures of the 
South. If public meetings could be held 
and newspapers printed, to advocate pi- 
racy in two ditterent forms, though both 
in the interest of slavery, and the State 
and Federal governments connive at the 
same, does it manifest a remarkable ilete- 
rioration of morals, that John Brown came 
to the conclusion that what could be done 
for slavery might e^iually be done for free- 
dom? that on the homoDopathic principle 
that " like cures like," those who favored 
tilibuster expeditions to Cuba and Central 
America, might be cured by a similar ex- 
pedition to " extend the area of freedom" 
in Virginia? Yes, in Virginia, of all 
other States, the home of Henry and 
Washington and Jefferson — the State that 
has for its broad seal the representation 
of a freeman trampling on the prostrate 
body of an oppressor, with tin- motto 
above, " iSlc 'semper tyrannU P' — " Thus 
may it always be to tyrants !" 

And from whoni but from slaveholders 
did John Brown obtain the suggestion of 
the leading feature of his enterprise ? Did 
not the Missoin-ians, on their way to in- 
vade Kansas, break open the public arsenal 



nal at Harper's Ferry and not allow it to 
remain in tUe possession of the Federai 
government? "No doubt this was the hint 
that led to the enterprise that has resulted 
so disastrously ; and within a few <lay8 
the same threat ha« been repeated by an- 
other leading Virginian with reference to 
the probable result of the next presiden- 
tial election. Thus the men who hang 
John Brown announce their purpose to 
imitate his conduct. What was treason 
in him, changes to patriotism in them I 
Can that conduct, then, ttamp him with 
infamy, even in their eyes? 

And if he indulged any idea of a serious 
and general movement for freedom, as possi- 
bly arising from his undertaking, in case of 
an arnied contest, he may have deemed suc- 
cess more probable than we are prepared 
to pronoimce it. lie may have over-esti- 
mated the reatlincss of men m the free 
States to rush to his aid when the conflict 
should have fully begiuj, and he may have 
been deceived as to the readiness of the 
slaves to co-operate >vitlx any party that 
might promise liberty. His own success 
previously in Kansas may have blinded 
him to the difficulties of this new scheme, 
so that it appeared to h.m benevolent and 
feasible in all its aspects. 

And then once more — who can tell how 
much secret faith he may have had in in- 
terventions of Providence in his behalf as 
the (leliverer of the oppressed. His mind 
was just of the cast to imagine this, direct 
descenuant as he was of the Pilgrims, from 
the old May Flower stock, and kindred to 
the men who followed Cromwell, " trust- 
ing in God and keeping their powder 
drv." He seems to have ha<l a dash of 



and supply themselves with weapons? Did I superstitious fanaticism, strengthened by 
not Governor Wise himself, under whose a misuse of Old Testament ideas and 
administration John Brown has just been | practices, and may easily have suppo.sed 
hung, declare inl856, during the last pre- i that God ha<l raised him up like one of 
sidential canvass, that if John C. Fremont I the ancient judges, Uj deliver his oppress- 
were elected President, the South would | ed people. .\nd he knew, moreover, that 



12 



ein th first outbreak of a great revolution, i glory, but thought that he wielded " the 
the earliest movements always partake of sword of the Lord and of Gideon," for 
a seemingly seditious and illegal chai-ac- 1 the deliverance of the oppressed. Indeed 



ter ; for the laM'S never riiake provision 
for revolutions, and those who lead in the 
first overt acts of discontent are usually 
slaughtered without mercy as mere insur- 
rectionists, after which the smothered 
coals ignite and the flame of indignation 
and rebellion kindles into a universal con- 
flagration. Our own revolution was intro- 
duced by riotous resistance to the use of 
stamped paper, the destruction of the tea 
in Boston harbor, the " Boston massacre" 
(to the funeral of whose victims the whole 
city turned out) and the petty skirmishes 
of Concord and Lexington, no war as yet 
having been declared. 

These considerations, while not justify- 
ing John Brown's invasion of Virginia, 
as an act in itself proper, may easily per- 
suade us that to his own mind it appeared 
right, so that he was conscientious in un- 
dertaking it. We may then view him as a 
man without holding him severely respon- 
sible for this error of judgment. When 
we judge him, in his personal character, 
we are to remember also that he was a 
professor of religion, a member of an Old 
School Presbyterian church, nor has any 
one a word to offer against the reality and 
fervency of his piety, aside from his. con- 
duct in making aimed resistance to slave- 
ry. And if officers and privates in the 
armies of different nations, who make war 
their jn-ofession and place themselves at 
the disposal of their respective goveni- 
ment« to fight battles any where and for 
any purpose, if in the judgment of our 
conservative divines and editors, such 
men may give evidence of genuine piety, 
and after their death on the battle ground, 
their biographies may be written and 
widely circulated by religious publishers, 
it may be allowed us to believe in the pos- 
sible piety of John Bro-y^Ti, who though 
he shed blood, did it not for hire, nor for 



it is difiicult to read the accounts given 
even by his enemies, respecting his per- 
sonal purity, dignity, calmness, self-posses- 
sion, truthfulness, fortitude, and adher- 
ence to principle, without believing him 
to have been in some respects a very emi- 
nent Christian, despite his errors. He 
was characteristically a man of pi ayer, 
and like the old Puritans, prayed 1 efore 
he fought, and fought all the har("ier in 
the remembrance of his prayer. His 
courage was evidently the courage of 
faith, the fear of man being lost in the 
fear of God ; while like all genuine he- 
roes, he proved his greatness by the hu- 
manity which tempered his daring. No- 
bler sentiments have fallen from no man, 
than were uttered by him in his conver- 
sation, in his letters and in his address to 
the court. What, for instance, can exceed 
the moral sublimity of the Avords contain- 
ed in his letter to his old friend. Rev. H. 
L. Vaill, " I have enjoyed much of life, 
as I was enabled to discover the secret of 
this somewhat early. It has been in mak- 
ing the prosperity and happiness of others 
my own ; so that really I have had a great 
deal of prosperity. I am very prosperous 
still." And how lofty the faith of his 
declaration at the close of one of his let- 
ters to his Avife, " I cannot remember a 
a night so dark as to have hindei-ed the 
coming day ; nor a storm so furious and 
di'eadful, as to prevent the return of warm 
sunshine, and a cloudless sky." His 
whole demeanor, up to the last moment, 
gave evidence of reverence for God, love 
to man, and a heart in which was 
" the peace that passeth understanding." 
Let his faults have been what they may, 
John Brown, so far as we can judge him, 
was a genuine Christian. He did in life 
what he thought God called him to do, 
and when he was sentenced to death, 



13 



meekly uoccptod it as an net of I'rovuleuce 
;xnd as God's intimation tliat he " was 
worth inconceivably more to hantr, than 
for any otluT ptirposc"' \Vli<> that has 
read the *' Prison ^leditations," of Juhn 
Bunyan will not be reminded of ilu- par 



"Art I believe mo(<t lirmly tfiat God 
reit^ns, 1 can not believ*j that anything I 
have doiw^ xuffertd., or may ytt suffer, 
irill l)f lost to tTf: cause of God or huttian- 
ity. And Iji'tbre I beijan my work at 
Harper's Ferry, I felt assured that in the 
worM event it would eertainly r.vv, I of- 



allel declaration of that immortal divaiiitr: 1 f^'" expressed that belief; and 1 can now 



The pri.-ioii very sweet to nie, 
llatli boon since I cuinc here ; 
^l/i(/ go woidtl alio Itang'inij Ih 
If God sliould there iippciir. 



«fi' no possible cause to alter my mind. 
I am not as yet in (he tnnin, at all disap- 
pointed. I have been a ijnof/, deal disap- 
jtointed as it rei^anls nii/Ht/f, in not keep- 



, 1.1 . • . I I niLC I'P io iitu oicn p/uim, but 1 now teel 

d recommend th ' ministers :iud I ,.7;.. ',. . ^ .. , f ., ' ,. , , j , 

I entirely reconciknl to that even ; tor God 6 
vho rail at John Brown to read ,,i.i„ ^^as infinitely better, „o duuht, or I 



I woul 
editors w 
this entire work of Huiiyan, and explain I should have kept'to my own. Had Samp 



if tliey can, the coincidence in the spirit, 
the sentiments and the laiifjiiage of the 
two men. Thus, in the very spirit of (he 
text, he signified, that if, .as a single grain 
of wheat, he was useless for food, he would 
at lea.st answer to plant. We staiul too 
ne;Lr him and have too much at stnke in 
tiie great question which he sought to 
solve, for us to judge him truly. Future 
generations will do him ample justice; 
and history will number him among her 
heroes. Yea, the time may come when 
Virginia herself will be proud of his mon- 
ument. 

And what will be the eventual rt-sult of 
his deeds and of his death? If partly 
evil, by man's imperfection, yet largely 
good, by (iod's overruling. The error of 
his judgment will be eclipsed by the glory j overthrow, and yet so weak withal, that 
of his principles; we shall forget Ids mi.s- its defeiulers quake at the sight of their 
taken appeal to arms, and think only of | own shadows and it can only be sustained 
his character, his motives, his sacrifices, by force of arms and the grim display of 



sf>ii kept to his determination not to tell 
Delilah wherein his great strength lay, he 
Would probably never have overturned 
the house. 1 (lid m)t tell Delilah, but I 
was induced to act very <-<jiitrui'if to ray 
better judi/nient ; and I liave lost my two 
noble boys, and other friends, if not my 
txoo eyesP 

The thrill which has run through the 
nation has at least startled it from lethar- 
gy and nmde it conscious that the grand 
j)roblem of its own continued e.vistcncc 
lies unsolved in this very question o'i slave- 
ry. Shame has already crimsoned millions 
of cheeks, that we have chensh<'<l thus 
long in the world's presence and before 
tlie despots of Europt-, an institution 8o 
vile, as to tempt men liki' John Brown to 
sacrifice their lives in vain attempts at its 



and his death. It is not in vain th:it John 
Brown has died, in form as a traitor, in 
spirit as a martyr. Though his deeds 
came seemingly t(» nought, his heroic dar- 
ing, and his sublime contempt of death, 
even by the hand of the executioner, will 
render him immortal. They have killed 
hira, but they have given new life to his 
principles. It is worthy of notice how 
strong was John Brown's own faith in 
such a result. His words in the letter to 
Rev. Mr. Vail, already referred to. were : 



the gallows. And mu<t not these events 
lead to a'renewed and more earnest dia- 
eussion of the .subject in ehureli and in 
state, at the North and at the South ? 
Has not the fact stood revealed, that be- 
neath the Sonth is the volcano of a slave 
insurrection, the fatal eruption < f which 
may come eitlier from the jjrompting of 
hope, or the wild phren/,y of dispair? 
Flas not the panic of an entire State at the 
invasion of a corporal's guard, — a fiict not 
at .all ludicrous in its indif'ation of the 



14 



fearful liabilities of the South, but only as I justly expect that God will work through 



contrasted with the frequent l)oa8ts, the 
insulting threats and the assumed courage 
of her politicians — has not this panic, I 
say, proved the weakness of our country 
in case of a serious invasion by some 
powerful foe, as also the horrors which 
hang over the Soutli in case of a dissolu- 
tion of the Union resulting in civil war? 
Must not Christians likewise be led to in- 
quire, whether God is not thus rebuking 
their unfaithfulness, and warning them 
that their recreancy may lead to (lesj)erate 
measures on the part of the slaves and 
their sympathizers? Who does not sec 
in these things an occasion for alarm, lest 
God, giving us up to our sins, should al- 
low human passion to kindle on both 
sides, until by mutual acts of mad violence, 
our coimtry is made the scene of terrible 
carnage, and slavery is destroyed in a se- 
cond Red Sea, but this time of blood ? 



other and more terrible instrumentalities. 
For I suppose that none of my hearers is 
skeptical on the point that American sla- 
very is doomed to destruction. God will 
destroy 'it. " Shall not the Judge of all 
the earth do right ?" He will first offer 
the work in its more peaceful form to His 
Church; if the Church despises or ne- 
glects it. He mil make use of other pro- 
vidential methods, human wrath, war, 
bloodshed, until He has taught the world 
a lesson of justice and humanity through 
us, as He did three thousand years ago 
through Egypt. The crisis is a solemn 
one. for God's purposes are ripening fast, 
and I need not remind you how rapidly 
His work comes to a close, when "the set 
time" has an-ived. The long period of 
preparatio}! is drawing to an end, and the 
vials of wrath are ready to be poured out. 
Everything betokens a speedy and terri- 



Our hope is in God and in His Church, ble struggle between liberty and slavery, 
Let Christians arise and Avith one voice | and what may happen to our beloved 
demand that tliis sin of oppression shall country in the conflict no tongue can pre- 
be put away. Let them use all peaceful | diet. Now is the time for the people of 



and appropriate means to spread light and 
to bring all classes to concur in emancipa- 
tion, as equally the right of the slave, the 
duty of the master, the necessity of the 
nation, and the command of God. Let 



God to lift up their voices in prayer and 
to put forth then- hands in effort. Now is 
the time for the ministers of religion to 
rush in, like Aaron of old, with their 
burnintr censers between the living and 



them see especially that the church itself the dead, that we perish not by divme 
is pure from this sin; that the ministry judgments. — Ninnb. 16: 46 — 48. Now is 
fails not in the proclamation of the truth, the time for God in His search to find the 
and that the membership does not em- men to "make up the hedsre" and to 



brace those who claim property in their 
fellow-men. Then inay we hope for na 



" stand in the gap" before Him for the 
land, that He should not destroy it. — 



tional repentance and an escape from di- ] Ezek. 22 : 29, 30. If such shall be the 



vine judgments 

But if all warning be despised, if the 
Church of the living God will not come to 
the help of the oppressed, if even ministers 
of the gospel shall be more concerned to 
condemn the errors and faults of those 
who are earnestly seeking the overthrow 
of slaveiy, than to expose the enormities 
of that system of abominations, we may 



result of the sacrifice of John Brown, it 
Anil appear that he was a seed of liberty 
divinely planted at this critical period that 
by " dying" he " might bring forth much 
fruit." 



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